 Tom Florio |
Former Condé Nast senior vice president and publishing director Tom Florio is getting back into the magazine business by acquiring pop culture title PAPER Magazine. Together with XRM Media and PAPER CCO Drew Elliott, Florio has formed ENTech Media Group, which has signed an agreement to purchase the magazine from PAPER Communications co-founders Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits. Plans are for the magazine to scale down its print presence while beefing up its digital offerings. "We will build on their digital and native content, social architecture and video,” said Florio. “In 2018, the magazine will go quarterly with an increased distribution in bookstores and single copies." PAPER isn’t exactly a stranger to incorporating digital communications into its game plan, however. In 2014, the magazine debuted its “Break The Internet” issue with a cover shot of a scantily clad Kim Kardshian that generated more than 70 million monthly unique visitors to Papermag.com
 Jarl Mohn |
The sexual harassment scandal at NPR that provoked the resignation of the radio network’s former head of news, Michael Orsekes, may be having some subsidiary effects. In a letter to NPR staff sent out on Tuesday, CEO Jarl Mohn announced that he would be taking a medical leave of at least a month to address a “dangerous level” of hypertension. He suffered a ruptured aorta in March. Mohn has come under fire for what some see as foot-dragging in response to the charges brought against Oreskes. “In retrospect,” he said in the letter, “I did not see the bigger pattern of poor judgment and unacceptable behavior.” In addition to the harassment complaints, that behavior included $1800 in invalid expenses, for which Mohn said Oreskes has reimbursed NPR. While Mohn is out on medical leave, NPR COO Loren Mayor will be filling in for him.
 Serena Williams |
Oath—the digital arm of Verizon that includes AOL, Yahoo! and the Huffington Post—has named Serena Williams the founding chairman of its board of advisors. Williams will lead a celebrity-studded group that includes Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, fashion designer Zac Posen and recording artists Chuck D and Ciara. The board of advisors will share the expertise they have gained from building their own brands with Oath leadership, as well as having access to the brands that operate under the Oath umbrella. They will also work with Oath’s philanthropic and social impact arm, Oath for Good, providing financial and volunteer contributions to the cause of their choice. Oath CEO Tim Armstrong says that the board “represents the leadership, creativity, work ethic, and philanthropy we aspire to as a company and they will help us make Oath a company unlike any other.”
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
